Opinion | From Google to Facebook and beyond: beware the rise of a new generation of elites, superpowered by AI
- Artificial intelligence is entrenching the power of the elites and magnifying their self-serving nature beyond imagination. At stake is the common good of humanity
Historically, important decisions in governments and societies have been made by an elite group of leaders, whose motivations were not ensuring security and the improvement of people’s lives but the shielding of elite privileges and the pursuit of ideologies and objectives of questionable value to the people.
For centuries, pharaohs, emperors, kings, and religious leaders forced people to build pyramids and colossal temples, fight endless wars, and submit to abusive aristocracies and theocracies. Those who challenged their dogmas, power or interests were systematically eliminated.
Later, colonial elites used brute force to invade and exploit vast regions of the world, excusing the destruction and abuse of numerous societies as the price of civilisation.
More recently, elites have learned to put on the cloak of patriotism, national security, democracy, freedom, communism or other benign-sounding purposes to legitimise their self-serving objectives and actions. Patriotism, for example, fills the armies that make possible the armed conflicts mostly driven by elites competing for dominance: Christians versus Muslims, communists versus capitalists, democrats versus authoritarians, and so on.
The high price is paid by the people with their blood and work when only the elites can make significant gains or feel the fulfilment of some divinely inspired purpose.